Antares: TOR 701 terrain update

The Warlord staff campaign is getting well under-way – over the past few weeks, we’ve all been hurriedly studying the rulebook, scribbling-out potential army lists, assembling and painting models, and launching skirmish games in order to get-to-grips with the rules!

If you missed the introductory article outlining our plans for the campaign, you can view it here.

Warlorder Andy Hobday also discussed what types of terrain we’d be using in this article.

Since the article’s release, he and the wider web team have been hard at work scoffing cakes – and (when they can find time) tinkering with all manner of abstract bits and pieces in order to create all sorts of strange and wonderful scatter terrain for the Warlord Staff Campaign – so let’s take a look!

LOW SCRUB
Low Scrub is an area of scattered mostly low vegetation that offers a slight degree of cover but which does not impede the movement of troops or vehicles. Think of this as tumbleweed or low bushes or fungi up to about man-height or slightly taller.
LOS: Light Terrain
COVER: Res+1
DIFFICULT: NO~ Antares Rulebook (page 52)

RUBBLE
Rubble is an area covered with building debris and devastation and is comparable in every way with naturally rocky ground.
LOS: Light Terrain
COVER: Res +1
DIFFICULT: YES~ Antares Rulebook (page 53)

BOULDER FIELD
This is an area of densely strewn rocks up to about man height affording cover to troops but impenetrable to vehicles and large models. A boulder field is sufficiently dense to block line of sight from one side to another. As with areas of rocky ground, these are common features of lunar type worlds that may be devoid of vegetation or running water.
LOS: Dense Terrain
COVER: Res+2
DIFFICULT: YES-1/Impassable to large models.~ Antares Rulebook (page 53)

ROCKY PINNACLES
These are isolated rocky projections of considerable height, but relatively tall and thin. It is quite easy for troops to move between them but they are impassable to vehicles and other large models. They might comprise natural formations of rocks eroded by nature spikes formed by the accretion of minerals much like stalagmites, or mineral towers raised by alien creatures in the fashion of a termite mound
LOS: Dense Terrain
COVER: Res+2
DIFFICULT: NO/Impassable to large models~ Antares Rulebook (page 53)

Rich.C from the Web Team has been tirelessly creating all manner of terrain for Antares over the past few months – he’s been an unstoppable whirlwind of hobby energy – and one Monday morning he walked into the office with a beaming smile, clutching these strange termite mound-like creations that he’d made using an air-drying clay. We immediately loved them!

Maybe they’re some form of colony for one of the many Lavan Species which assist the Boromites in their mining operations… maybe we’ll cook-up some form of home-brew rules for them… who knows?

BOULDER FIELD
This is an area of densely strewn rocks up to about man height aﬀording cover to troops but impenetrable to vehicles and large models. A boulder ﬁeld is suﬃciently dense to block line of sight from one side to another. As with areas of rocky ground, these are common features of lunar type worlds that may be devoid of vegetation or running water.
LOS:Dense Terrain COVER: Res+2
DIFFICULT: YES-1/Impassable to large models.~ Antares Rulebook (page 53)

HILLS AND LOS
Any intervening rising ground that obscures the target from the shooter’s point of view obscures line of sight (LOS) as described in the rules for Line of Sight on page 25. No Acc penalty is applied for intervening hills or raised ground. Hills either block LOS or are open ground from the shooters point of view.~ Antares Rulebook (page 57)

Of course we’ve gone a bit further with our hills and added obsticles in the form of rather large skeletal remains – what desert planet would be without??? Here is Warlord’s house rule for the skeletons.

SKELETAL REMAINS
The scattered bones of once majestic creatures may on occasion appear as the ever shifting sands move aside. These bones provide only limited cover but is better than nothing!
COVER: Res +1~ House Rule

And a little preview of our next battlezone work in progress, watch this space!

JUNGLE
Jungle is the ultimate in dense vegetation where progress is likely to be impeded by plant growth to an even greater extent. LOS: Dense Terrain
COVER:Res+2
DIFFICULT: YES-3/Impassable to large models~ Antares Rulebook (page 52)

BEYOND THE GATES OF ANTARES STARTER SET

Beyond the Gates of Antares is the new science-fiction skirmish wargame written by Rick Priestley (the creator of Warhammer 40,000) that pitches technologically advanced human civilizations into a conflict that no one can afford to lose.

The game is rich in detail and extremely ambitious in scope with initial rules and army lists that describe six different Antarean factions: the PanHuman Concord, the Ghar Empire, the Isorian Senatex, the Algoryn Prosperate, the Freeborn Vardos, and the Boromite Guilds. Beyond the Gates of Antares game play makes use of the successful and exciting dice activation system first pioneered in Warlord’s popular Bolt Action WW2 wargame – ensuring that both sides remain active and engaged throughout every game. Resolution is by ten-sided dice offering considerable expansion and great range of detail compared to traditional six-sided dice.

Strike Vector One: The Xilos Horizon is the battle starter set for Beyond the Gates of Antares.